Vallejo abandons water customers

As new residents of Green Valley, my wife and I have become aware of a plan by the City of Vallejo to sell off a part of its domestic water supply infrastructure to a private company.

The city plans to sell off the Lakes Water System (LWS), which provides water to about 900 residents of Green Valley and surrounding areas. The LWS was the first water supply for the City of Vallejo, built around 1910. It is now well past its useful life of about 50 years and having had no significant maintenance it is now in dire need of refurbishment, at a cost of about $30 million. If it is sold to a private company, this cost will by born by its customers, increasing our water bill by an estimated $1,000/month over the next 30 years.

The City of Vallejo has enjoyed the revenue of its LWS customers for many decades. It has used these funds to build out water infrastructure for its growing population, while neglecting maintenance of the LWS. Since 1993, the City of Vallejo has been charging its LWS customers a hefty fee for supposed development of additional water resources. Yet Vallejo has been totally derelict in its obligations to maintain the LWS. What did it actually do with the additional revenues it charged us?

The City of Vallejo should recognize its obligations to all its water customers. The LWS customers have paid more than their share to support its other customers. Now it is time for the City of Vallejo to meet its obligations to the LWS customers. Instead of callously dumping the cost of fixing the LWS on a few local customers, it should meet its obligations by charging all of its customers for all of the maintenance of all its water resources, as it has done in the past.